The classic Hollywood origin story involves a teenager discovered at a soda fountain and molded by a studio. The woman in this episode shattered that myth: she did not make her first Hollywood film until nearly 40, rewrote her own dialogue on her first picture, and once chose an eight-day jail sentence over a small fine because she understood the power of free publicity. We follow Mae West from her 1890s Brooklyn childhood, with a bare-knuckle prizefighter turned private detective for a father and a corset model for a mother, through the grueling vaudeville circuit she entered by 14, where she built her signature walk and drawl by studying male female-impersonators.

We cover her move into writing and producing her own plays in the 1920s, the 1926 Broadway hit that got her theater raided and earned her a conviction for corrupting the morals  ...